Transit Administration Awards $49 Million for Fuel Cell Buses

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced in mid-October its
award of $49 million in grants to develop buses powered by hydrogen
fuel cells. The FTA, a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation,
is awarding the funds to three non-profit organizations: the Center
for Transportation and the Environment in Atlanta, Georgia; the
Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium in Boston, Massachusetts; and
WestStart-CALSTART of Pasadena, California. The funding will support
14 separate projects, including efforts to build a 35-foot plug-in
hybrid fuel cell bus; to develop a lightweight fuel cell bus using
ultracapacitors or lithium-ion batteries for energy storage; and to
develop a 40-foot bus that couples a diesel engine with a fuel cell
auxiliary power unit. The projects will employ fuel cells from Ballard
Power Systems, Hydrogenics Corporation, Nuvera Fuel Cells, and UTC
Power. Various fuel cell buses will be field tested in Alabama,
California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New
York, and South Carolina. See the
FTA press release
and a related
FTA Web page,
which includes photos and the full list of projects.